Only Mormeg's models today, as I don't have time to paint for about two weeks... My brother managed to paint four stands of terminators, four land raiders and some rhinos too - apcs will be shown in next part of Epic: 30K notes. Land Raiders tanks are taken from very old GW game, first published in "Epic" scale, "Space Marine". They do have many faults, like - for example - very visible mould lines. Mormeg patiently and skillfully removed them, but I wasn't able to scrub them off on my own tanks... These models do have some advantages though. First - we have a lot of them. Second - they represent version correct for Horus Heresy. Models issued later are based on new images, they have lower silhouette and different tracks.

As I browsed through the blog today, searching for various links for grouping them on the header bar under common titles (guides, reviews, etc)., I noticed that one of my finished projects wasn't properly photographed yet. I'm speaking, of course, about Mexicans, band of outlaws, fortune and adventure seekers, ready for some skirmish action. I'd like, to be honest, add a rider or two and some proper band leader but I think this will have to wait... So... posse is ready...

A few days ago I've got a small parcel from Ral Partha Europe. Inside I have found some blisters with miniatures produced by this company. I'd like to review some of them, made in 15 mm scale. All blisters I've got in this scale contains fantasy miniatures, designed to be used with Ral Partha own 15 mm mass battle ruleset "DemonWorld". Figures comes packed in clear plastic zip-bags, containing paper leaflet with the name of the ruleset and small label with miniatures' name and number of figures inside. This is a little misleading, as - for example - blister with giant scorpion - is labelled as two person pack, as this monster has two goblins as crew. But, generally speaking, it gives a good measure of number of "assembled" miniatures inside. UPDATE: Stupid me... I don't know what I thought... Label on giant scorpion is perfectly clear - it reads as "Goblin Grancroid Giant Scorpion" - without number of persons per pack, as it should be, so everything is perfectly ok. Sorry for that mistake.

First of the bags contains a monster labelled as "Goblin Grancroid Giant Scorpion". I was really suprised how huge this thing is. It is REALLY big - especially for 15 mm scale. It can be used, I think, in 28 mm scale too, as a "young" giant scorpion for example. Miniature comes in numerous parts - two for torso, two pincers, tail with giant sting, all legs casted as separate pieces and two goblins for crew. I'm sure that this miniature will look absolutely fabulous when assembled and painted.

Second blister is labelled as "Wood Elf Personalities" and contains six heroes of this race. Two of them are on foot, one is mounted on the unicorn, one on the pegasus and two of them rides horses. There are also two separate lances, they are designed to fit to specific heroes (details on arms match details on some heroes). Every miniature has some distinctive features - be it a sorceress riding the unicorn, foot shaman of sort with giant claws attached to arms, knights and warriors riding barder horses (two different designs too).Last blister contains just one miniature - wizard labelled as Gandagor the Grey. Robes, staff, beard... well, it looks to me as certain other The Grey wizard;)All figures are slightly bigger then true 15 mm scale, they measure about 18 mm to the eyes line. All of them are very nicely casted, with mould lines being practically invisible, without other imperfections or traces of mould overusage. If I had to compare them to some other companies' miniatures, I would say that they are on par with historical Xyston's better miniatures. These Ral Partha's figures are, simply, very nice. Bodies are very proportional, with heads, hands and feet of correct size. They look very natural. All of them are nicely detailed too - from ornaments on robes, to details of weapons and equipment. These are, for certain, one of the best looking 15 mm scale miniatures I have ever seen.(In addition to photos of unpainted miniatures made by myself, I'd like to show photos of painted ones too. They are coming from Ral Partha Europe website and present official samples).

There is a lot of activity on epic front here. Together with my brother Mormeg we made some necessary orders of missing miniatures and vehicles, there is a lot of painting going on too. My brother managed to finish some infantry stands (some of his newly finished World Eaters are visible on the photo), and I - despite my holiday break - started to paint a lot of stuff at the same time. There are three whrilwinds, eight land raiders, dozen rhinos and eighteen stands of the infantry basecoated and washed right now. And speaking about washes. My first painted rhino was done in my traditional way - with basecoat, acrylic wash, then painting again all flat areas with basecoat color again (to lighten a model a little bit after washing and make color transitions more gradient-like), then highlights and details. After coming back from my vacation, I painted another rhino, using oil washes this time. Differences are clearly visible. First, oil wash has tendency to run only in hollows, leaving all flat areas in original color. Second - if some of the oil wash is left where it shouldn't be, it is very easy to wipe it off with a brush. After the oil was was dry, I painted all details (guns, lights, etc) and then edge highlights. Everything took just ten, maybe fifteen minutes - much faster then with acrylic washes.

It is true, that final look is different, and surely not for everyone tastes. Some people prefer to paint vehicles with lots of mud and very dirty, others like them relatively clean. I belong to the second category, so I prefer this newer, cleaner look. But after painting all vehicles I will probably paint some "mud" on the lower parts of the hulls, using acrylic wash. I will try to emulate the effect visible on the hull of the first painted rhino.

This post is slightly unusual - not only it is delayed a bit, but it is not "chosen from the week" but chosen from three weeks. Reasons are simple - first my holidays, then I have had some things to do which were much more important then blogging.

Galleries and eye candies: take a look at these Shermans in 15 mm scale, painted by Cameron from Rust and The City blog. I really like this kind of painting - realistic, without strong contrasts, and at the same time really detailed and good looking. Another historical gallery is here - this is diorama depicting one of the last battles of the Napoleonic wars - siege of Spanish city of Badajoz, defended by forces of (broadly speaking) French, attacked by forces of English-Portuguese coallition, led by Wellington. This siege, ended in massacre of defenders and citizens of the city, was very bloody for both sides. Diorama is truly great, you can see a part of it on the photo next to this note. Three next links are for fantasy and sci-fi fans out there. First, great looking space station and battle cruisers from Battlefield Gothic game, painted by James Wapell. Just look at the engines' exhausts... Another link leads to The Bolter and Chainsword forum, where RazakelXIII has presented his Word Bearers army - great looking conversions and nice special effects of shots. And the last entry is all about oldschool, old miniatures and mood - the object of my enfy - rare model of Citadel's Chaos Dwarves Juggernaut, masterly painted and presented on Realm of Chaos blog. Enjoy!

czwartek, 7 lutego 2013

Plastiki się skończyły, ale zostało mi jeszcze kilkanaście metalowych ghuli... Już słyszę ten jęk dobywający się z ust stałych czytelników, jęk radości, rzecz jasna;)
O malowaniu nie ma się co rozpisywać, to - jak poprzednie trupojady - oleje na kolorach podstawowych nakładanych aerografem. Wspomnę tylko o samej figurce. Dotychczas miałem wrażenie, że te starawe metalowe figurki są całkiem, całkiem. Nadal mi się podobają, jednak po pracy z nie najnowszymi przecież plastikowymi ghulami czegoś im brakuje. Nieco detali może, może ostrości szczegółów...Plastic ghouls are finished for time being, but I still have about two dozen of yet unpainted metal ones... Ops, I'm hearing some moans from the regular readers... I will take it is a mona of joy of course;)Painting is no different then few last ghouls - oils over airbrushed basic colors and highlights. Miniature itself is more interesting. I hav had a feeling - and for a long time let me add - that these old metal miniatures were really good. I still like them, but after working with plastic ones - which are not the freshest plastic GW's miniatures - I found them lacking a bit. Maybe it is a lack of details, maybe some overall sharpness...